The present invention relates to mobile communication terminals and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus that regulate the generation of user alerts from mobile communication terminals.
Conventional mobile communication terminals, such as cellular telephones, vibrate and/or play a defined ring tone to notify a user of an incoming phone call and/or a received text message. If a user is away from the terminal, the vibration and/or ring tone stops after a defined time period so as to, for example, conserve battery power and avoid excessive annoyance to any proximately located persons. Upon returning to the terminal, the user may need to go through a cumbersome process in order to determine whether any incoming calls were missed and/or any text messages have been received, such as by entering a security code through a keypad to unlock the terminal and then identifying the meaning of various diminutive notification symbols that may be displayed.